2020-010 | OUTDOORS SAFETY & TENT COOKING

OUTDOOR COMMON SENSE TIPS: Never ever cook inside an enclosed space like a tent. Escaping gas or flammable vapors might accumulate inside and would cause first-degree or second-degree burns and destruction of equipment. Synthetic materials used for shelters, jackets, sleeping bags are made from petrol products and would be consumed by flames quickly.

To prevent from being forced to cook inside tents, choose your campsites that are not windy and exposed. Exposure to wind chill steal away heat from your flame and will make your cooking a haphazard task. As much as possible, stay away from exposed peaks and ridges.

First seen in Facebook

December 18, 2017

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BUSHCRAFT’S TRUE PRACTITIONERS ALWAYS use the terrain for their advantage. They are smart enough to evade exposed areas as a principle and would never establish a campsite there just because it harbored a scenic landscape. They would just admire the scene but they would never stay there. The best they would do is take a video or a set of photographs and move on to a sheltered place. 

Why do they not think like the rest? Simple. They have experienced that before and they would never let themselves be invited again by amateurs who do not know how to choose the best campsites. Peaks, saddles and ridges are not the best places to camp. These places are so exposed that it is regularly battered by winds, hail, rains and that usual wind-chill that make your camping miserable.

Because it is so exposed, you are forced to stay all day and night inside your tent. Even the normal biological functions of defecating and urinating seems to be an uphill battle against the shivering environment. Most likely, because lighting up a stove seems to be a tricky process out in the open that you moved your camp stove inside the tent. The inside of a tent becomes your sanctuary where you cook your food. 

In cramped spaces such as a tent, you are bound to tumble things around and let us hope it is not the top-heavy pot balanced atop a camp stove. If you do that the flame might spread on your tent, your sleeping bags and nylon apparels and causes damage. You might even burn yourself from the tiny flames you touched while putting it out as it eats your melting tent floor, sleeping bag or clothes. You might even scald yourself from the water you boiled or the sausage you fried in oil.

The most dangerous thing is keeping your stove inside while you slept or while you are out to enjoy the scenery. The valve might be defective and caused a leak which lets fuel escape into the insides of your tent. In the case of sleeping dead drunk you might not see the light of the next day due to breathing in poisonous gases. Maybe the escaping gas have accumulated below the roof of your tent that lighting a naked flame caused it to explode in a small fireball leaving your hair and eyebrows singed and a big hole on your tent. 

It is very important then to choose the best campsite which is sheltered and not too high. In bushcraft, we opt those that is found below the tree line. Security wise, we cannot be skylined and observed from afar. We can enjoy our cooking in the open and a small social gathering without having to turn our backs to the wind. 

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WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG, personified by this writer, is synonymous with the Outdoors, since Bushcraft and Survival is its niche. Safety and Security are its bedrock when it ventured into organizing outdoor events that involved people as in adventure/pilgrimage guideships and seminars; and explorations and expeditions. 

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a book titled, ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.

 

Photo Nr 2 from Barco Reale

NAPO TO BABAG TALES CXXI: Campsite Hunting

THERE IS NO GREATER EXCITEMENT in the outdoors than that of hunting a campsite. It rivals a little with exploring a route, which is the most challenging. A campsite used for bushcraft differs so much by those used in mainstream outdoor activities. Bushcraft prefers places that is not conspicuous and flashy. The heart of finding a bushcraft camp is the discovery of a clean water source which should be farther away. Access to a stream is its other consideration and, of course, bamboos.

It is April 23, 2017, sunny and warm. I am not alone. I am with the guys and gals from the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild. I am leading the small party. We just left Napo and I have my sights to Camp Xi. This campsite which I always favor nowadays is accessible and easy on all ages and physically-challenged people. Camp Xi is a complex. It has many levels with good campsites and are inconspicuous when observed from the main trail.

 

Although I had already identified four possible campsites previously but I am not the one who is satisfied of first impressions. I need to search further for the best camping site. A gentle slope goes up from the Sapangdaku Creek and you only have to follow a trail. We stop by an abandoned house and plucked water apples (Local name: tambis) and star apples (kaimito) to refresh ourselves.

A cloud passes by and I resumed my uphill walk. I had been here a few times, the last was on September 4, 2016, and during that time, I noticed a good campsite. I did not stop to look around then as I was just passing through. After 20 minutes of huffing and puffing, I found the place. What I saw last time, I thought, was the whole area. I was wrong! It is bigger than I thought it was. To know the place better you have to walk into it.

Uphill of me would be another trail that goes down a small creek where there is a small waterfall. I could have plenty of water from there. Boil it if it makes it safe to use. The stream has bamboo groves and firewood are plenty. Well, I got all I need and I do not have to search far and wide. The new site is perfect. It has shades from mango trees.

 

Basically, it is ground good for tents and simple shelters. Places for hammocks are almost absent except for one or two places. There is a natural lecture area and there is a place to build a campfire. This is a good camping ground for next week’s event that I am hosting free and another one in May for a survival training camp. This is it.

The ridge I am on is actually bounded by two streams, the names of which I do not know. Maybe the farmer who farmed uphill would give me that information. I hope he is present. I walk uphill but the farmer is nowhere. I decide to go down the stream and prepare our meal somewhere there as it is now almost 11:00. We cross the stream and climb up a path beside the small waterfall. There is a huge marang tree (English: Johey oak) that grow here and it is quite shady. We will rest and cook food at the headrock of the waterfall.

I am quite amazed at this tree whose presence was not even appreciated by locals. They misunderstood it with something else – a tipolo – a close relative of the breadfruit. This tree could may well be an heirloom species, an original resident when Cebu was lush with indigenous forest. While the rest were busy preparing something to cook, I need to take a nap on the bosom of the marang tree as the day is very warm.

I must have slept for about 15 minutes. The guys are still in the middle of their cooking. They used tin fire boxes and aluminum Swiss Army burners for better management of fire. I fold my cheap laminated nylon sheet which I used as ground sheet and stow it back inside my Lifeguard USA rucksack. I decide to visit a small pool located upstream. The coolness is so inviting but bathing is not in my plans today. I went back to the guys.

I go down to the foot of the waterfall and goes up to the ridge where there is a small flower farm. The farmer is there and we talk. The stream where there is a small watefall is called Sarapia Creek. The other stream on the other side is Lungnan Creek and, beyond another ridge, is Busan Creek. The ridge I am on is called Kampredo and a hill across where there is a lone steel tower is Mapawon. My education today is answered.

I take note of these things because I am a writer and an outdoors educator. I need to be accurate with my facts. To those who sat in my camp classes and to those who read my blog, you only learn from the best, as I strive to be that, to satisfy your thirst for knowledge. I thanked the farmer and go back to my buddies. The meal is served just in time. It is another feast for these hungry bunch.

After lunch, as part of our entertainment, we parade our blades on a piece of log. The blade porn, is a bushcraft tradition which naturally sparks off good conversations and good camaraderie. We in the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild have adopted it here in Cebu and introduced it to the rest of the outdoors community as a novel activity. There never was like this until I pioneered leisure bushcraft here in 2010.

We washed black pots and dining implements and slowly packed it inside our backpacks together with the extra blades. We would go to Mapawon Peak and we took a trail that only few people use. I have walked this trail a few times and I liked it because I do not have to meet the mainstream outdoors crowd. I liked it that way and it is exclusive, for the moment, to my bushmen. The trail passes by a small flower farm and goes down a small gully.

We pass by an abandoned farmer’s shed and this place is mango country. There is a trail on our right that goes downhill and another on my left but I focus on the one ahead of me. It wind along the contour gently and the trail goes steep a bit as it climb up a hill. We arrive at Mapawon. On the peak is a dilapidated hut, long abandoned, and there are two big holes filled with water. Two PVC pipes separately supply water to the holes.  

 

It is also a good place to make camp here due to the presence of water which were piped from somewhere along Sarapia Creek. It has trees that gave shade and to set up hammock-and-shelter sets. There is a ground down a saddle that could host tents. One of these days, I would also use this as a bushcraft camp.

We go down from the peak to the saddle where there is a power pylon. We pass underneath it and climb another hill which the farmer said was called Katugasan. There is a stunted avocado tree that bear shiny-green little fruits. There is a trail to the left that led to a rose flower farm but I am not interested of getting snagged with thorns and touch substances like chemicals.

We reach a tamarind tree that marked another trail to the right but I am interested only on the main trail which I have been following for more than an hour. Then the vegetation disappeared. Right before me is the trail but all around it is a bare hillside and it is quite steep. It would have been easier if we walk from down up to here. Going downhill is kind of complicated. There are no vegetation to hold on to as anchor.

I got two fat guys with me and two females. The rest are regular guys who spend some good time outdoors. The path is now loose because there are no more green things to retain ground moisture. I hate mindless cockroaches who wantonly cut trees and shrubs just to make charcoal. It took us almost an hour on this part to see all landing safely at the trailend. We are now on the road and we walk a kilometer more to reach the parked Fuso Canter.   

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COMPLEAT BUSHCRAFT XX: The Ideal Camp

FINDING A GOOD CAMPSITE for the 2015 edition of the Philippine Independence Bushcraft Camp is a priority for me. I remembered in 2012 where I have done it solo in the Babag Mountain Range of Cebu City just a few weeks before that year’s very impressive PIBC. It always brings out the best in me. It takes skill to identify a good campsite, especially for bushcraft use.

A bushcraft camp is so different from a camp used mostly by mainstream outdoor activities. A bushcraft camp does not grow on bald peaks nor on exposed places and does not need a sea of clouds. It stays below treeline where it blends with vegetation and does not desire to be so colorful. An ideal bushcraft camp have to have access to a stream and bamboos. A clean water source is only a bonus since bushcraft could use any water it obtains.

The PIBC is transferring to the hilly areas of the Municipality of Lilo-an, Cebu and I had considered three different sites there. All three places had been visited by me and it has the features and criteria to host a bushcraft camp. However, the PIBC is a big event and this year’s PIBC, I believe, would be participated by many people, not to mention the different PIBC alumni who would volunteer their time to support their new brethren.

It is because of this that I am a bit challenged. These three different places are not that big in terms of camp size, good enough to accommodate more than 30 individual shelters, and the sustainability of a water source to supply drinking water to a good number of people that would swell to around 40. That is a lot and water is very vital as well as security. I need to look and find that camp.

Today, April 11, 2015, I am going to Lilo-an. Coming along is Jhurds Neo, the President of Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild. Automatically, he will sit in the PIBC as the Camp Ramrod – that is the camp administrator in layman’s term. We meet at Mandaue City at 14:00 and commuted in a public utility midget AKA the Multicab. Oh God, I hate that vehicle and I still patronize it. Oh dear!

Anyway, we arrive at 15:15 in Lilo-an and proceed on the business of procuring the food ingredients for our meals at the public market. Both me and Jhurds intend to stay overnight so we will cook and eat dinner tonight and breakfast for tomorrow. Once we have the items, we hired two motorcycles to bring us to the trailhead. I intend to start at the hanging bridge at the village of Mulao but my driver dropped me at the wrong place. Jhurds followed suit.

Upon inquiry with a local, we are a long ways off. We are at Cabadiangan and we will have to walk to a spillway from whence Mulao will start. If we walk fast, it would take us 90 minutes to reach the village hall of Mulao. We start on the road which begins to ascend once we got past the spillway. The road going to Mulao is adorned with garbage bins colored brightly and ornamental plants lining the sides.

We reach the village hall and register our names. We also get to pay a visitor’s fee of ten pesos each since the village had identified certain features of their place as tourist spots. The Cotcot River runs along the village and this same river is the boundary between Lilo-an and another town, Compostela. The river has huge granite rocks and water-polished boulders choking the river and two of these have names – Malingin and Arko’ng Bato.

We go down a path to Cotcot River and reach our old camping site where a lone acacia tree grow. I know there is no water source here but I heard that there is one near Arko’ng Bato and we will have to find it in the failing light. We reach the big boulder on a difficult route and it is already 18:00. It is almost darkness and shadows have claimed the banks where there are vegetation – the likely places where a natural spring would occur.

We are on a wide shelf of granite and we decide to set up camp there. We have water for cooking and drinking and we will use the stream for washing. Immediately, I forage dry driftwood which are plenty on the other side of the bank and that means I have to jump and balance over menacing rocks which would have been slippery and dangerous should it were wet. Warm days made it more acceptable to rubber though.

Once I got firewood, I return to the shelf and break the smaller ones by hand, the bigger ones with my AJF Gahum knife. Jhurds collect four stones of equal size and begins making a fire. I pull out my consortium of black pots and begins to slice 250 grams pork meat, peeled three potatoes, cut 20 green pepper, crush garlic and chop an onion with my Mora Companion knife. I enjoyed coffee first before I start to cook the pork adobao and boiled the potatoes. Jhurds, meanwhile, prepared the cooking of rice.

On an iron grille supported by the four stones, three pots are simultaneously placed over a fire, each having its contents cooked. We eat dinner at 20:00 under the clear starry sky with the frolic of the stream water supplying us music of nature. It is dark but we have small LED lights and a LuminAid solar-powered emergency inflatable lantern to light the place. The granite below us is still warm and this would help in our sleep later.

After that good meal, Jhurds wash the pots downstream. I stand guard with a light on him. It is so silent save for the swirling sounds of the river, the hum of crickets and the calls of geckos. Once in a while, a commercial plane would buzz overhead and pierce the harmony of the night with its engine. I see the familiar geometry in the sky that tell tales of mythical creatures and superhumans.

We enjoy the ambiance of the place so much that we spent the evening hours in conversations until it surprised us that it is already 23:00. We sleep on our respective hammocks which we use instead as ground sheet and bedding. The shelf is so wide that it removes away your fear of falling on the river while asleep. The smooth rock is warm which would be very helpful when the temperature would dip low during early dawn.

I wake up from time to time to check on our positions in relation to the river’s edge. We did not slide contrary to my fears. A last quarter moon crosses overhead and paints a silvery light on the riverscape. My brain react to the light with dread as if it is daylight. Everything is silent except the usual natural sounds. My fingertips are feeling the bite of the cold and I place hands on the part of my body where it is most warm.

I wake up when the first rays of light touched the highest mountains. I take a leak on the other bank and came back with an armful of firewood. My search for the natural spring is certainly not here and could be upstream. I do not know but it is best if I prepare our breakfast. I break two eggs and stir it briskly on a skillet after I sprinkled salt. I slice three eggplants into thin strips and drop all to the stirred eggs. I also peeled and sliced three potatoes.

Jhurds start the fire where the separate pots for the potatoes and rice are cooked. I place the skillet over the fire and begin frying the eggplant chips with oil. We eat our breakfast at 07:00 and then we start washing our pots. We notice a lot of dead river mudskippers and fresh-water shrimps. The shrimps turned red and I begin to suspect chemicals although I see traces of a poison plant pounded on a rock. I am confused since poison plants do not turn shrimps into red ones, a condition caused only by exposure to heat or strong medicine.

Cotcot River is sick and so polluted with chemicals and I see to it that my pots are thoroughly washed with strong detergents once I got home. The Municipality of Liloan should know about this so preventive measures would not kill the river in the future. I believe people fish for subsistence and wash their clothes here and exposure to chemicals would surely cause health problems for them.

We leave Arko’ng Bato at 08:30 going on a quest to find that natural spring. We meet a local fisherman carrying a sack. We inform him of the dead fishes and shrimps in the river and he showed me a good-sized catfish and a foot-long fresh-water eel. He found these already dead and would have brought these home as food when he noticed our great concern. He left the catfish and eel on a rock and I gave him our uncooked rice, eggplant and egg. Then we found the natural spring that we had been looking since yesterday.

It is surrounded by a spiny bamboo grove (Local name: kagingkingon), a Malabar almond tree (magtalisay) and an elephant apple tree (katmon). The spring gushed forth from the ground where a bamboo trough is placed. Nearby are several natural springs which were not used and the runoff caused a small marshy area. Across the spring is a river pond where bathing is possible and downstream small waterfalls and jacuzzi-like channels.

Satisfied with our find, I taste the water and I notice it has its own distinct taste. Could be from granite. Anyway, a good water source gives the possibility of hosting more people for the PIBC, which I feared would come. We walk on upstream and begin the next phase of finding a good campsite which could accommodate many light shelters, tents or hammocks. We found a good spot where there are several mango trees and a few groves of spiny bamboos in the vicinity.

The spot looks familiar. This is the same place where Aljew Frasco had taught Notching on the rest of Camp Red last March 9, 2014 (CB 11: A Notching class by the Riverside). Then the old hanging bridge linking Mulao of Liloan to the Mulao of Compostela would not be far. The same bridge that we were supposed to get dropped yesterday were it not for my driver’s judgment error. I am bestowed with good fortune today and I am happy that my expectations had turned out right the way it should be.

I know the route now to the hanging bridge but we take a shortcut instead to farms and over a low hill to get there instead of following the river. We reach the bridge at 10:20 and both of us deserve rest and a bottle of cold soda drinks each. After that, we begin another uphill walk on a road which has no trees to shade us. It is concrete and it took us over an hour of walking to reach a road corner where another road goes down to the same road where walked yesterday.

Then the “cavalry” arrived in the form of a red Toyota 2003 pickup driven by Christopher Maru and we were “rescued”. Christopher is Camp Red and had participated the PIBC in 2013 together with Aljew. We reach the town center of Lilo-an before noon and take lunch at open eateries near the municipal hall. Then I make it sure that we will not commute by riding in a public utility midget AKA the Multicab. Our mission is accomplished.

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